Drama – The Clare Championhttps://clarechampion.ie
Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notesFri, 22 Feb 2019 01:18:23 +0000en-GBhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.3https://clarechampion.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cropped-Clare-Champion-Phoenix-only-32x32.pngDrama – The Clare Championhttps://clarechampion.ie
3232158669663Ennis Players need new premiseshttps://clarechampion.ie/ennis-players-need-new-premises/
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 15:02:10 +0000http://clarechampion.ie/?p=52658POPULAR local drama group Ennis Players are facing a potential crisis in the coming months, as they are set to be left without a premises.

Explaining the situation, Arthur Forde, who first became involved with the Players in the late 1970s, said, “We’re sort of homeless at the moment. The property boom has meant that if a place is at all useful in a commercial way, it’s gone.

“We’ve been in various places, various halls, various pieces of property around. We had a unit out in the Quin Road industrial estate, but that was always just a temporary stop-gap. As soon as it became needed, we were to be on our bike.”
The group have been there for the last two years but are due to vacate the premises this October.

Arthur says that, while the group would not be very particular, there are certain things that would be helpful. “It has to be reasonably high anyway. We need the area mostly for rehearsals and construction of sets. We’d need ideally about 800 square feet.”

They are keeping their eyes open for anything suitable that might become available.

“It doesn’t have to be the lap of luxury but we would need it to be reasonably good and, of course, secure because we have a lot of stuff, a lot of props, a lot of costumes and all that sort of stuff. We do need some place reasonably secure.”

The group is not particularly busy right now but activity will be stepping up in the coming weeks. “We’re not active on stage during the summer. Our next one will be in September, we’ll be preparing for the one-act circuit, that’s the competitive side of it, and for supper theatre in the Old Ground in November,” Arthur said.

There is quite a large membership of the group, reflecting its local status. “We have about 50 permanent members. There are others who come and go but there would be that core there. You need that size of a group to handle the plays that come up. There is a lot of backstage work involved.”

While it is important that they find a solution, Arthur feels the group will continue anyway.

“I don’t think folding is an option. All of us have bits of garden sheds and places we can pile stuff into but it wouldn’t be ideal. We wouldn’t have a premises for constructing sets and it’s essential that you have a place to rehearse on the actual set itself, especially when we start doing the competitive circuits for the drama festivals around the country. You need to be reasonably proficient.”

Unfortunately, he doesn’t think that purchasing a premises is an option. “We can all dream and keep doing the Lotto but financing a group like this, we barely break even. It costs a fair bit on the road and we don’t have an endless supply of people with money.”

By Owen Ryan

]]>52658Corofin take 39 Steps to Athlonehttps://clarechampion.ie/corofin-take-39-steps-to-athlone/
Fri, 24 Apr 2015 16:25:55 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=22875Corofin Dramatic Society is one of nine finalists in this year’s All-Ireland Drama Festival taking place in Athlone from April 30.

Having picked up numerous awards on the open circuit, the society is returning to the stage in Clare this Saturday night in Glór and in Corofin hall next Wednesday and Thursday with its production of The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow.

“It is certainly a busy couple of weeks,” said director John Clancy.

“We performed in Glór in February and then after that we did the circuit. The hall [in Corofin] wasn’t ready for us but it is open now and we performed there this week. We will be in Glór on Saturday and we are back in Corofin again next Wednesday and Thursday, before going to the All-Ireland on the May Bank Holiday weekend,” he explained.

John acknowledged that it is time-consuming for the cast and crew but no more so than other hobbies.

“I know a few lads playing golf and they don’t spend any less time on it than we do on this. Even in my own football days, I remember the commitment. This is a busy time of year with performances and travel and, of course, we travel big distances but that is what we do for our sins,” he said.

The show has a cast of four but there are nearly 20 involved in staging it.

“Martin O’Donoghue plays the main character, Richard Hannay. He won best actor on the road. Maura Clancy plays three characters, Annabella, Pamela and Margaret. James Raleigh plays about 15 characters under Clown 1. The other actor is Alan Maguire, who is Clown 2, who also plays about 15 characters. They would all have picked up awards over the season,” John stated.

“This is quite a difficult show to stage, so our crew, our lighting, our set and so on have all picked up awards because the adjudicators know how tough it is to stage. It is a very technical show. The actors can only go so far. Overall, there are 18 people behind this production between make-up, building sets, taking them down, lights, sound and all that,” he added.

Corofin Dramatic Society has twice made the finals and both times Maura Clancy has won best actress awards.

“All our actors would have performed in the finals in Athlone before, so there is nothing new there and hopefully the bit of experience will stand to them but we will just go and give the best performance we can,” John concluded.

Corofin Dramatic Society perform The 39 Steps in the All-Ireland Drama Finals on Sunday, May 3.

Nicola Corless

]]>22875Sad adoption tale for Kilkee stagehttps://clarechampion.ie/sad-adoption-tale-kilkee-stage/
Fri, 13 Mar 2015 19:50:35 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=21813WHEN Noelle Brown decided to look for her birth parents, she was met with consistent opposition and stone walling, tough experiences she has turned into something positive through her play, Postscript.
Born into a mother and baby home in Cork in the 1960s, she was adopted at eight weeks of age. She grew up knowing about the adoption but had very little curiosity around it.

“I knew it from a very young age, which was great because I grew up at a time when people weren’t told. I knew people who were told when they were 21, which obviously didn’t go down very well but I suppose those parents thought they were doing the right thing as well. For me, there was no shock element to it.”
She grew up quite happily in a loving home and now she says her contentment with her lot may be why she didn’t spend much time thinking about her birth parents.

“It [her youth] was absolutely brilliant and I suppose that’s why I never went looking for so long. I was 35 when I started to make an effort to look and I did it with a bit of fear and trepidation because I didn’t really know what it was going to be like. It’s a massive emotional journey and I underestimated that. It took a long time to deal with the issues that I found.”

The decision to begin looking into her origins was made quite suddenly and Noelle quickly found out that she wasn’t easily going to get the information.

“I met up with a friend of mine, who mentioned that a friend of his had traced his birth family and I just went home and made the call. I rang the Barnados adoption service and started the ball rolling. The result of that was they gave me a number to ring and, unfortunately, at the other end of the phone was this very uncooperative nun and I nearly gave up at that point because she was so unhelpful. That kind of stopped me in my tracks for a while and I eventually rang Barnados and said, ‘I’m having difficulty getting basic information’. They got on board and put everything in motion again. Without them, I think I would have given up.”

While she kept going, the progress was quite slow because, emotionally, the process was draining her. She proceeded only at the pace she was able, with layers of opposition negotiated only to find new layers beneath them.

“People were being uncooperative, telling me I had no rights, telling me I wasn’t allowed this and I wasn’t allowed that, which was absolutely untrue but there was a real sense that they didn’t welcome you asking questions and looking for information. It’s a terrible feeling because it’s a difficult thing to do anyway, emotionally but to be slapped back down and told to forget about it. I found that really upsetting and it makes me very angry that it’s still going on.”

Even now, anyone in a similar position who tries to take the same course of action as she did may find themselves having the same problems, she warns.

“The people who set that system up are still there and they’re sitting on all these files, unfortunately. You can be lucky, you can have a good experience but a lot of people don’t and I think that’s a terrible shame because it’s so fundamental to who you are. Where you come from is so important.

“The same with birth certs; there’s a whole section in the play about me trying to get my original birth cert. We all only have one but what you have growing up as an adopted person is an adoption cert and you’re not entitled to your own birth cert, even if you have traced your family. You’ve no power over it. Someone else decides that. That’s another huge issue in Ireland and it shouldn’t be. There’s no other country in the world where you have to fight for your birth cert. There’s still a hangover from the past, unfortunately and I think this play kind of highlights that for people.”

Dealing with adversarial social services regarding such a sensitive matter may have been tough but she has no regrets now.

“With the whole thing you really don’t know how you’ll feel until you’re there but I’m very glad I did it. At the time, I found it very, very difficult but I was very glad that I went through it. It was very important.
“I think I probably would have done it sooner if I had kids because the first thing that’s asked when a child is born is who do they look like and they don’t always look like their parents, it could be someone generations back.”

Noelle works in the script department of Fair City, while the play was co-written with her friend, Michele Forbes.

Speaking about its format she says, “It’s done through a series of letters, me as myself telling my own story and also there’s another actor on stage, Bríd Ní Neachtáin, so you hear the voice of an old house as well and the voice of an interfering auntie in the midst of it all.”

An actor for many years, telling her own story was the role she found hardest. “It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done as a performer because I wasn’t playing a character for the first time in 30 years, I was playing myself and that was very, very tricky.”

While the experience was difficult and writing and performing a play about herself was difficult, she says the reaction to Postscript has made it worthwhile.

“We started putting the play together in 2013 and the response has been just incredible. I think it’s such an issue in Ireland still. It’s now that people are starting to talk about it and it’s no longer so hushed.

“We did a big tour last year for about six weeks and we had plenty of post-show discussions, met so many adopted people, adoptive parents; we had extraordinary conversations. It’s been a great experience and we’re looking forward to heading out on the road again.”

Postscript will be performed at Cultúrlann Sweeney in Kilkee on March 28 at 8pm.

Owen Ryan

]]>21813Old scórs to be settledhttps://clarechampion.ie/scors-to-be-settled/
Fri, 14 Nov 2014 09:41:21 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=18448MEMORIES of cultural contests of years gone by will be rekindled at the West County on November 21.

Settling Old Scórs is being organised by Kilkishen’s John Torpey. He said he wanted to revisit the heyday of Scór in Clare.

“I’m organising a celebratory concert of Scór from the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and the millennium. Scór was a huge thing, probably one of the greatest social items that the GAA ever came up with,” he said.

In the early days of the competition, there was incredible interest in it, not least in his own part of the county. “Christy Curtin from Miltown Malbay came up with a notion that there should be a social aspect to the GAA. Coming out of that, all of the clubs in the county were contacted, including myself and Robert Frost in O’Callaghan’s Mills. A few of us met in Kilkishen on a Saturday night and we said ‘you sing a song, you do this, you do that’.

“My own club were to the fore in the competitions right through the years. It got so good at one stage that we had to have our own club competitions in order to select people to go and represent the club! We actually had four clubs, O’Callaghan’s Mills senior, O’Callaghan’s Mills minor, Kilkishen camogie and Kilkishen handball.

“There was one night I got caught badly. I had a young guy called Michael Hogan who played the concert flute, he played the music for Kilkishen but he also danced a set for the Mills! There were a lot of ructions over it,” he added.

In the early 1980s, Scór was embroiled in controversy and the committee organising it in Clare was actually disbanded at one stage.

John says the controversy of the time only showed the passion for it. Several people from that time who were involved in the controversies and who were in dispute, are involved in this event. “The first person I asked to come on board was the person who was chairman at the time when the whole thing was disbanded. Seamus O’Sullivan was the first guy I asked and when I told him the name of the concert, he burst out laughing and said he was on board.”

On the night, there will be a lot of people involved who have a big history in Scór. “We have novelty acts from Sixmilebridge and Shannon Gaels who would have been there before. Cooraclare were last year’s champion and they’re coming in as well. We have three sets, I’m dancing myself in one of them.”

When Scór was at its height, the judging of events was frequently controversial and unfortunate adjudicators could get more abuse than any hurling or football referee. “Adjudication was a massive problem, there was only one adjudicator for every item. When I got elected to Munster Council, my first priority was to get three adjudicators for every item. It didn’t happen for a while but gradually I wore them down,” John noted.

John got his fair share of stick when adjudicating himself, including one night in Tipperary that he still remembers decades later. “I was after doing the Tipp county final in the Premier Hall in Thurles and I got attacked left, right and centre afterwards. There were four teams, Moycarkey/Borris, Newcastle, Clonoulty, Rossmore and Toomevara, they were all in the final. I judged it and I gave it to Newcastle and they actually went on and won the All-Ireland afterwards. One particular team approached me afterwards and they absolutely tore strips off me.

“I said, ‘look it, I’ll talk to one person’. They nominated a guy, Lord have mercy on him he’s dead now since, Seamus Cooney. Seamus said ‘John, what were you thinking of to give it to Newcastle? We were the better team there tonight’. I pulled a notebook out of my pocket, I told him there were two brothers dancing in the set and every time they did the change, they bumped off of each other. I said their line-up was totally out of order and I went through a list of things that I saw as not being good that the other teams hadn’t done. Do you know what he did? He held out his hand, shook hands with me and he said, ‘John Torpey, it’s the first time I got fair adjudication, I never saw a notebook produced before’.”

The funds raised by Settling Old Scórs will go to two deserving causes. “I’m very involved in the Cultural Centre in Kilkishen. We’ve restored a 211-year-old Protestant Church and made it into a cultural centre. We got great help from Clare Local Development Company but we still owe some money on that all the time. Also, I have a little granddaughter who is a regular visitor to Crumlin Children’s Hospital and I thought we would give a percentage of our takings to Crumlin.”

He is looking forward to the event and hopes it might help boost Scór a little. “I had to get permission from Croke Park to use the logo. The case I made was that maybe this would help to bring back the memories to some people and maybe revive Scór a little bit.
“It might give it a shot in the arm, we’re working on a few new things and, hopefully, we’ll have a special guest on the night.”

Owen Ryan

]]>18448Hats off to some great local charactershttps://clarechampion.ie/hats-off-to-some-great-local-characters/
Sat, 02 Aug 2014 14:45:41 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=15026Meetings of Clare’s most famous names is the premise for a one-man show to be staged in the north and east of the county later this year.

Lisdoonvarna man Gerry Howard will star in the performance Hats Off To Clare, written and directed by Mountshannon resident, Paul Brennan.

The production will explore the imagined interactions of Clare’s most famous factual and fictional characters.
Gerry was involved in amateur drama for years before taking the leap into professional acting and it was around the time he decided to leave his career as a hotelier that the seed was sown for this particular production.

“I was always involved in amateur acting. I think I started around the age of 12. I was involved in plays with the Lisdoonvarna Dramatic Society and was involved right up to when I sold the hotel, The Carrigann in Lisdoonvarna. When I sold it, it seemed to be a great opportunity to have a cut at something I love doing. So that is when I decided to attend the Gaiety School of Acting. It was a great experience.

“The idea for a one-man show came from a meeting with the late Nuala O’Faolain. When I decided to go to the Gaiety, Nuala lived in Barr Trá just outside Lahinch. She was friendly with the director of the Burren Players at the time, Helen Browne, and she used to come and see our shows. I met her one time after selling the hotel and she asked me what I was going to do and I told her about the Gaiety and she suggested I do a one-man show based on writers and playwrights from Clare. She was interested in exploring the notion of doing something like that. At the time she was going to the United States and that was the ill-fated journey where she got the bad news about her health,” he recalled.

The idea was firmly planted and although Gerry was cast in productions by Vagabond Theatre Company, Truman Town Theatre, Duked Productions, Shooting Star, Decadent Theatre Company and the Young Vic, London, he hoped to still get the opportunity to progress the idea.

“I was working on other productions and I had worked with Paul Brennan before, so we met and decided to try to work out this idea one. I had worked on several occasions with things that had a Percy French element to them and I threw a few characters at Paul, like French and Tolkien and some of the other characters. Then it was his idea to place them on a carriage on the West Clare railway. He came up with some other characters and wrote the show and developed the staging for it,” Gerry outlined.

Many people will know Gerry and Paul from their production of Kissing Syd James. Paul is renowned as a professional actor, director, playwright, adjudicator and acting teacher. He has directed with the Abbey, the Gate and other Dublin theatres, with Druid, with Island in Limerick and with Red Kettle in Waterford, for whom he has directed two Bernard Farrell premieres and five other productions. He was also involved in the Brian Boru Millennium weekend in Killaloe/Ballina in April.

Hats Off To Clare will be performed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 24, 25 and 26 at the Royal Spa Hotel, Lisdoonvarna and on Saturday, November 1 at the Community Hall in Mountshannon.

While these are the only performances planned at the moment, Gerry is hoping the production could develop into a tourist attraction.

“We are just putting it on in Lisdoonvarna and Mountshannon initially but we would like it to become a tourism product, or something that venues might be interested in putting on as a way of showcasing Clare,” he outlined.
“We will put it on and see how it goes. We think it is good and hopefully people will come along and see it for themselves and enjoy it,” Gerry concluded.

KILDYSART Drama Group will present their production of Jimmy Keary’s The Maiden Aunt in the local community centre this Saturday and Sunday.

This is the third time that the Kildysart players have staged a Jimmy Keary play. They produced the world premiere of Too Close to Home in 2007 and Fortunes and Misfortunes in 2010.

Stage hands, Emily Leahy and Aoife McMahon. Photograph by John Kelly

Last year the group enjoyed enormous success with their production of A Wake in the West which, like this years production, was directed by Colin McMahon.

“Last year was our biggest success to date. I’d say we turned away hundreds of people. We just didn’t have the room for them so we’re trying to keep up with that standard now which isn’t easy,” the play director told The Clare Champion.

Some who attended last years play thought that they had wandered into a funeral home. Anybody who entered the hall by the rear door, were met with a ‘body’ which was laid out and circled by seated, apparently ‘grieving’ family members.

“A couple of people went across to the pub and said they were after making a mistake. They landed into John Cahill’s (pub) and said ‘we came out to see a play and we’re after landing into a funeral by accident.’ That actually happened,” Colin McMahon laughed.

“It was a bit risky but I said ‘look it lads, we’re going to go for broke.’ You were forcing the audience to take part in the play, which was brilliant. That’s not usually the case. It’s hard to emulate those things,” he acknowledged.

This years play, The Maiden Aunt, is a comedy set in a farmhouse.

A retired unmarried school teacher, played by Anne Breen, arrives after a spell in hospital to spend some time with her niece, Mary Murphy, played by Sarah Gavin and her husband, Dan, played by John Convey. They hope that their hospitality will be rewarded with a favourable bequest in the old lady’s will.

Dan and Mary are struggling with a son, John Paul, played by newcomer David Clancy, who is only interested in being in a band with his friend, Jarleth, played by fellow newcomer, Aidan O’Loughlin. They have hired a farm labourer, Francie, played by Frankie O’Shea to help them run the farm.

Near neighbour, Caroline Quinn, played by Carmel Hogan, tends to call at the most inappropriate times and the visit of solicitor, Paula Moore, played by first timer, Joanne McNamara is not exactly what was planned either.

The group has been rehearsing since last October.

“It’s part of the social fabric of Kildysart now at this stage,” Colin McMahon said.

He says that the cast tend to enjoy the play more on the second or third night, rather than opening night.

“On the first night you get over your nerves. But then a comfort zone is a dangerous place to be too because you can take your eye off the ball a bit. Somewhere in between is the place to be where everybody knows their lines and every one is comfortable with their character. You can go out and give it holly without making a bubu,” he added.

Some directors sit in the audience but Colin is more at home back stage, for the first night or two anyway.

“For the first one or two, I would be back stage in the wings or out the back. By the third performance I would definitely go down the hall because often you can see things there that you can’t see up at the back. Long time directors are never near the stage, they’re always down the hall looking up. When you’re looking at it from a distance you’re looking at the relationship of the cast with each other and with the set. There’s always something you’d have done differently. I’m really only a fledging director anyway. I’ve only directed two plays before this so you’re always learning,” he acknowledged.

Colin McMahon says that the drama group has helped the evolvement of local facilities.

“I’m only in Kildysart about 15 years but I helped to form the drama group originally. That hall was in a terrible condition but the drama group ultimately kick started renovations to the hall. What evolved from the drama group was a group called Focus which fundraised €350,000 locally and ended up building a €1.5m project,” he noted.

This is the sixteenth year that Kildysart Drama Group has produced a play. Over the sixteen years, the group has produced many memorable plays, including John B Keane classics.

The doors open at Kildysart Community Centre at 7.45pm on Saturday and Sunday.

]]>8873Bursary for music and dramahttps://clarechampion.ie/bursary-music-and-drama/
Wed, 05 Mar 2014 15:35:44 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=8762CLARE County Council Arts Office ‘s 2014 bursary is now open to applicants. One young person is being offered the chance to attend the Meitheal Traditional Summer School and another the opportunity to participate in the Irish Youth Choir Summer School.

The aim of the Meitheal bursary is to assist a young Clare musician to attend the summer school to develop their music skills through an intensive programme of master classes and workshops with noted traditional musicians. The bursary covers course fees, accommodation and meals.

The bursary for the Irish Youth Choir will enable one young person from Clare to attend the school free of charge and covers all tuition fees and accommodation costs. For both bursaries, they applicants must have successfully auditioned and been accepted by Meitheal and the Irish Youth Choir.

Members of amateur drama groups in the county can apply for assistance to attend the 2014 Drama League of Ireland Summer School taking place in UL during the summer.

Professional artists of all disciplines are invited to apply for the Tyrone Guthrie Bursary Award that allows an artist the opportunity to stay at the internationally renowned centre for up to two weeks, all expenses paid.

The closing date for these bursaries is Friday, March 14 and details can be found at www.clarelibrary.ie/arts.htm or www.clarecoco.ie.

]]>8762A night of high drama for ICAhttps://clarechampion.ie/a-night-of-high-drama-for-ica/
Sun, 26 Jan 2014 14:00:58 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=6621CLOONEY-Quin guild of the ICA is inviting the local community to their night of drama at Quin Community Hall on Friday next.

Now in its 34th year, the guild will present On the Couch, which is a new departure for the group, as they expand their annual drama night. The production now involves a split stage, which will facilitate the staging of two one-act comedies, an interview segment, music, song and storytelling.

The two plays are the work of local woman, Anita O’Loughlin, who has been writing short comedies for Clooney-Quin ICA, and Spancilhill Drama Group for many years.

“Both are short comedy acts. The first one, The Time of The Month, is about winter and specifically the three months in winter, November, December and January, and there is a sketch about each month, which are extremely comical. It starts with the holy souls in November, then it goes to the office Christmas party of Love Bites Limited and then goes to the January bulge, which is all about jumping off the January bumps and lumps,” Anita explained.

Her plays are each based around specific themes, which were devised by the ICA for their annual All-Ireland drama competition.

“They give us a theme every year to write a script around and this year was about the seasons, so I chose winter. The second piece is called 50 Ways to Say Yes. This play was again derived from an ICA competition and the theme had to be along the lines of the ICA Bootcamp series on television. I did a different take on it. What I did was on a pre-marriage course given by the ICA, bootcamp style,” she said.

This one-act play was very successful for Clooney-Quin ICA, as it was not only shortlisted for the national final, it came second and only lost out on the title by a hair’s breadth.

“This is our first time putting it on locally. It was entered as part of a national competition and we qualified for the All-Ireland, which took place in An Grianán, the headquarters of ICA in Drogheda, County Louth. We performed it there on June 23 last year. There were seven other plays along with our own and we came second, just one mark from the top prize. The adjudicator said the two acts were so close, he just had to make a decision on what was one and what was two and we came second,” Anita said.

Clooney-Quin ICA last won the All-Ireland in 1995/1996 with a play Anita also wrote, called Holiday Hiccups.

The night is a drama night with a difference and Anita decided it would be a good idea to introduce the idea of two stages in the hall.

“One is a chat-show stage, where Nigel Bridge will interview three people from the community who have had enormous success in their lives. They are Mary McCarthy of Bumblebee Creations; Gabriella Hanrahan, Quin and Louise Carrig, Unislim leader, who has had huge success with weight loss,” she said.

The night will begin with a wine reception before going to an interview, which will then be followed by the first performance, Time of the Month. Nigel will then conduct another interview before storyteller Michael Glynn will go on stage. There will also be some music and some song ahead of the second play, 50 Ways to Say Yes.

The event is being held as a fundraising night for the local ICA guild but each year there is also a proportion of the funds that are donated to charity. This year the charity is St Vincent de Paul.

]]>6621Playwrights make tracks for Kilkeehttps://clarechampion.ie/playwrights-make-tracks-for-kilkee/
Sun, 27 Oct 2013 08:00:49 +0000http://www.clarechampion.ie/?p=3700THE third annual Kilkee Playwright Festival takes place from Friday, November 1 to Saturday, November 2 with some new and exciting events being added to this year’s line-up.
On the right track: Members of the Junk Shun Productions in their Laughter In Court costumes at a photocall in Moyasta Junction to promote the Kilkee Playwright Festival, which runs on November 1 and 2. From front to rear; Richard Gair, manager West Clare railway, as Mr Sullivan, Charles Clancy as Percy French, Theresa Hartigan and Margaret Whelan as Miss Malone A and Miss Malone B, Paul Clegg as Clerk, Brian Comerford as QC Murphy, and Jim McNamara as Judge Kelly. Photograph by John Kelly

Organised by Cultúrlann Sweeney and Banner Productions, this year’s programme is more far-reaching and varied than ever with performances from Cork, Galway and West Clare, as well as a one-day playwright workshop.

The festival will kick off at 8pm in Cultúrlann Sweeney with The Great Hunger by Cork-based Theatre Makers Ltd. This one-man play is performed and adapted by Jack Healy from Patrick Kavanagh’s epic poem that deals with the trials and tribulations of its central protagonist, Patrick Maguire, a small farmer in post-Treaty Ireland.

Maguire fails to seize day-after-passing-day, as he watches in despair as his life edge closer and closer to an unconsummated conclusion. On his “headland of carrots and cabbage” he dreams of an idyll of marriage and children and yet boasts to his friends of his mastery in avoiding every “net spread in the gap of experience”.

His life is an endless cycle of feeding the hens, boiling the kettle, lighting the fire and giving the cows their hay, with only the monotonous certainty of Sunday mass or the meagre offerings of the crossroads to look forward to, by way of social life. Yet sometimes, when he is on the land, he has the most profound, life-giving experience of the spiritual in nature.

“Kavanagh masterfully mediates all of this – Patrick Maguire and his world – through a beautiful tapestry of words and images. Jack Healy has been described as revelling in the earthy and lyrical language of Patrick Kavanagh’s epic poem and put in a fine performance as the protagonist. Directed by Ger FitzGibbon, former head of Drama and Theatre Studies at UCC, who most recently was consultant director of Becket’s Krapp’s Last Tape and co-director of Frank McGuiness’ Mary and Lizzie, both at the Granary Theatre in Cork,” Siobhán Mulcahy, Clare Arts Officer and event organiser said.

On the Saturday of the festival Jack Healy will also run a one-day playwright workshop in Cultúrlann Sweeney. It will focus on the actual structures of writing a play, how to go about it and how to develop characters, among other things.

Meanwhile, at 8pm that same night, West Clare’s very own Junkshun Production performs Laughter in Court by Brian Comerford.

This one-act court room comedy is based on the court reports taken when Percy French sued the West Clare Railway for failing to get him to Kilkee on time to perform at The Old Moore’s. The incident led to Percy writing Are Ye Right There Michael, Are Ye Right? Directed by Jenny Bassett the cast includes Jim McNamara as Judge Kelly, Sean Dunleavy as QC Cullinan, Brian Comerford as QC Murphy, Paul Clegg as Clerk, Clarles Clancy as Percy French, Richard Gair as the manager of West Clare Railway Mr Sullivan, Stephan Whelan as Mr Hopkins (engineer at West Clare Railway), Margaret Whelan and Theresa Hartigan as Miss Malone A and Miss Malone B.

The evening will also feature Galway writer, director and actor Margaretta D’Arcy, who will be performing her devised work Conversations with the State. Margaretta has been a regular performer at the festival and performed Tea @ 4 with George Moore, with her late husband and great playwright John Arden.

“The festival is delighted to have Margaretta back in Kilkee, who has gained quite a large following over the years,” Ms Mulcahy outlined.

Ms Mulcahy will be launching the festival on the Friday evening, and will be followed by the Theatre Makers Ltd performance of The Great Hunger.

Tickets are available at Cultúrlann Sweeney or on the night, while workshop places are limited and need to be booked from 089 4967767.